Artists we Love: Deru, in the Studio, Videos

2010 is looking to be a terrific year for handmade computer music from Los Angeles. For one example of why, look to Deru, the composer and live electronic musician. His work continually grows more lush and more organic, drawing from musical strains as diverse as hip-hop and classical. And his upcoming album, “Say Goodbye to Useless,” takes all of that in. (Previously on Ghostly, Deru will release this disc on Mush.) I think it’s going to be a big year for warm, rich-sounding music.

Deru also has what looks like the CDM dream studio, neat, comfy, elegant, and packed with the best, most compact musical toys. If he doesn’t inspire me to work on my music, he may at least inspire me to clean my apartment.

Check out the exquisitely-animated video for Peanut Butter & Patience, top. Next, go into the studio to hear Deru talk about design, composition, and, perhaps inspired the California modernist institution of big glass windows, the picture-window frame as a metaphor for music making and sampling:

Deru played a great show in Seattle, Halloween Night, a great versatile electronic musician.

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"Side note: LA, you’re on notice. New York is going to bring it."

while i hate to say anything good about LA, they are going to continue to slay NY for some time, i think. seems like everything comes out of there these days. am i missing a new scene bursting forth from NYC??

Please, please, first, any pro-NY trash talk on my part is entirely in good humor, okay? 😉 They're different cities, and every city is different.

That said, I think we could use a good kick in our pants in NYC to get our scene jump started, and while I love LA and get out when I can, I *live* here and don't see that changing any time soon.

And I'm only half-joking. NYC has some amazing artists I adore. We also have a disastrous club scene, some real venue problems, soul-crushing cost of living and real estate situation, and a mayor and city government who can be really indifferent to the needs of artists who are up against some real, growing challenges.

There's not really much to analyze. NYC has amazing people and can be a real node for all the stuff going around in the world.

I mean, I learned this week that expecting *electricity* in a venue can be naive. And then we switched venues, and in a matter of a couple of hours we had gone from turning away people to having a really amazing experience with everyone who turned out. I expect I'm not alone in NYC, either – the scene worldwide for culture is better when we can all get through the simple BS.

So, that's what that comment was about. 😉

And yeah, I've also had this conversation with some of the anchors of the LA scene. So I'm trash talking, but darnit, I think us young NYers have a lot to learn from what they've done right. And I think we can all learn from other people in other parts of the world, globally, which is why it's so great that we're now all so connected. No excuses.

Big ups to you all at Create Digital Music for linking to our video interview of Deru -we're real proud of it! If any of you beat lovers are in Los Angeles on Dec 10th we have our monthly I AM A LASER showcase cooking that night with Deru and Ana Sia at Club Nokia. Check the event page here: http://iamalaser.com/2009/12/02/live-at-club-noki…

I don't know what he's done in the last 5 years but Trying to Remember is fantastic and one of my favorites from this decade, and that's coming from a dude who spends all of his free time talking shit about people's music on the internet.

I was worried he'd be a little too 90s at first but he's certainly found his place.

@Parker: I mean, texturally, timbrally, the new stuff is incorporating a broader spectrum of sounds, more natural-sounding textures, and a richer palette, and it's organic in the sense that compositionally I feel like it's becoming more fluid. (I love the earlier work, too, but that was the best word I could think of yesterday!) Maybe I'll have more intelligent commentary after I hear the whole album.